The Week That Was…

Published 11:03 am, Monday, April 25, 2016

These are just a few of my thoughts on what has happened at the state and national levels of sports during the past week.

Chippewas staying put…

…You may or may not know that I am a Central Michigan University graduate.

And among other things, that means I am a Chippewa for life.

However, the NCAA has recently tried to rip CMU of the nickname that its had since 1942.

Central was on a list of 18 schools with mascots deemed "hostile or abusive" based on race, ethnicity or national origin.

For those of you who have never attended a CMU sporting event, please note: there are no Native American images on the field, on the uniforms, or any place else.

CMU uses the Chippewa nickname with great care in order not to offend any member of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.

In fact, Central works closely with the tribe to make sure that there is no abuse of the name. The tribe actually supports and gives its full endorsement to CMU to use the name.

With that taken into consideration, the NCAA took CMU off the list.

If Central would have remained on the list, it would have been banned from hosting any NCAA championship events. Also, if a team would have qualified to play in a championship event, it would not be allowed to wear uniforms with its nicknames. Rules also would affect mascots, cheerleaders and dance teams.

I respect what the NCAA is trying to do  and I do believe there are some possibly hostile or abusive nicknames out there, but the CMU Chippewas are not one of them.

If a school that uses a Native American nickname has the full backing of the tribe, that should be the end of story.

For now, that seems to be the case.

From bad to worse…

…Looks like Joey Harrington can breathe a little easier.

That's because Jeff Garcia is no longer a threat to steal Harrington's job since he will be on the shelf for the next six to eight weeks after breaking his leg in the final preseason game against Buffalo.

Now, Lions fans better pray that Harrington doesn't go down as rookie Dan Orlovsky will serve as his backup.

Orlovsky may or may not be a viable quarterback in the future, but he's by no means ready to take over now.

It's actually surprising that the Lions didn't go out and pursue a veteran backup.

What, wasn't Ty Detmer available?

Garcia was never expected to come in and be the starter, but if Harrington did go down, or played worse than usual, he could have at least provided a veteran presence at QB.

Despite the preseason struggles  and the injury to Garcia, I'm still holding out hope for a 10-6 season.

Of course, I thought the Tigers were going to win the American League Central.

Are you ready for some football?

…That's right, the NFL season officially begins tonight with the Raiders and Randy Moss at the two-time Super Bowl champion Patriots.

It's not a game that I'm all that excited about, but I will be sure to tune in to see how Moss did for fantasy implications.

The real fun gets started on Sunday, when the rest of the league suits up for what should be another thrilling season.

Storylines are plentiful from when will T.O. finally erupt, to if New England can do the impossible  and win a third consecutive Super Bowl.

My gut tells me that there's no way the Pats can pull off the three-peat  there's just too much that has to go their way for it to happen again.

In the AFC, it looks the the Pats, Colts, and everyone else.

And the gap between Indy and New England may have shrunk even more with the addition of defensive lineman Corey Simmon to the Colts.

If the Colts can somehow gain homefield advantage in the playoffs, this could be their year to finally get past the Patriots. If not, it'll be another cold and snowy AFC championship in New England.

The NFC looks even more bleak than the AFC, as it's the Eagles and the rest of the conference.

Even with T.O. and McNabb feuding, there's not team in the NFC that's even in the class of Philly.

If Owens does blow up, that leaves the door slightly open for maybe a team like Carolina or St. Louis, but it will only be a small crack.

Regardless of what happens in the real world, I have enough fantasy teams to keep this season interesting all year.

Rice limps away…

…Barry Sanders, Jim Brown, John Elway  some of the greatest names to ever play football  and they all have one thing in common.

They left the game at the peak of their skills.

We have no images of these greats stumbling around in a game that had past them by.

For Elway, it was back-to-back Super Bowl titles, for Brown, it was after and MVP season, and for Sanders, it was just 1,500 yards away from the all-time rushing record.

However, the lasting image I will have of the greatest receiver to ever play the game, Jerry Rice, is him wearing No. 19 while struggling to be the Broncos third receiver.

Before that, it was Rice in a Seahawks uniform.

I would like to remember him as a 49er or even a Raider, but I can't because he didn't allow us.

I realize Rice was playing for the love of the game, but love can only take you so far when you're 42-years-old.

With that said, he still retires as not only the greatest receiver of all time, but arguably the greatest football player ever.

He had beaten cancer  and the best riders in the world an amazing seven times.

He had nothing left to prove.

Or so he thought.

But the French Media continued to try and drag him down with reports that he was dirty during his first win in 1999.

And for some reason, everyone in France was quick to believe the reports, although they could not be verified.

The false accusations have Armstrong so fired up, he's contemplating coming out of retirement one more time to prove once and for all that he's completely clean.

I'm sure he would be the first in line to best tested every day as many times as they would like.

Because he knows, like the rest of this country and his fans know, he's the last true and pure athlete on the face of the planet  and if it takes one more tour to do it, so be it.

If you thought Armstrong was motivated before, you haven't seen anything yet.

September 11th Remembered…

…Sunday marks the fourth year since that fateful day, Sept. 11, 2001.

The recent tragedy of Hurricane Katrina has resurfaced many of the feelings I, along with many other Americans felt that day, along with the weeks and months that followed.

We had that feeling of helplessness  like the situation was beyond our control.

However, slowly we recovered as the country pulled together towards one common goal.

And again, America is coming together to help our people in their greatest time of need.

It seems like a hopeless situation in Louisiana and Mississippi right now, but if there's a lesson to be remember from Sept. 11, 2001, it's this, that when things seem to be at their lowest is when this country can be at it's greatest.

Paul P. Adams is a sports writer for the Huron Daily Tribune and can be reached at (989) 269-6464 ext. 112 or padams@hearstnp.com. The Week That Was appears every Monday and Thursday.